


From the Outside, Looking In

by skieswideopen



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skieswideopen/pseuds/skieswideopen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes things go wrong. And sometimes they go very wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Outside, Looking In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathiann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathiann/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Remember](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/49394) by kathiann. 



> Thank you to A. for beta reading! All remaining mistakes are my own.

It should have been an easy arrest. There are four of them and only one of Jacobs, and they're picking him up for questioning based on a combination of Jane's intuition and some whisper-thin evidence that a first year law student could get tossed out of court. Any criminal with half a brain would have come in quietly, and then sat there laughing until their attorney got them out.

Jacobs, as it turns out, doesn't possess as much as half a brain. He pulls on them the minute Lisbon tells him they're with the CBI, gun in his waistband like a television gang banger, and then he's out the window and down the fire escape, firing blindly behind him as he goes, all before they can do more than duck and get off a couple of return rounds. Rigsby heads for the window as soon as the gunfire stops, and Grace races after him, her own gun drawn and ready. As she swings her legs over the window sill, she's peripherally aware that Cho and Lisbon are lagging, but most of her attention is focused on catching up with Jacobs.

What Jacobs lacks in brains, he makes up for in speed. Grace runs as hard as she can, only a step behind Rigsby, grateful for all the hours she's logged at the track. She sees Jacobs turn a corner ahead of them and puts on an extra burst of speed, praying they haven't lost him. She rounds the corner at the same time as Rigsby, and then skids to a stop beside him, eyes widening as she processes what she's seeing.

A few feet in front of them is the SUV where they left Jane waiting. Jacobs is standing beside it. He's somehow gotten Jane out of the car, and now has one arm curled around Jane's throat while he uses his other hand to jam his gun into Jane's neck. Jane is pale and terrified-looking and and as far as Grace can tell, he's not even trying to talk his way out of things. She catches Jane's eye, sees them flicker in recognition, and then he looks past her, searching for someone else. Absently, Grace wonders where Lisbon and Cho are, why they're not there providing back-up. Mostly she's focused on the gun, and on Jacobs' eyes. Her own gun is up, hands shaking from exertion and adrenaline. It doesn't matter; she doesn't have a clear shot anyway.

Beside her, Rigsby yells for Jacobs to drop the gun, and then Grace hears footsteps pounding behind her. She knows without looking that it's Cho, feels his steady presence as he takes up position on her other side. She feels better with him there, the whole team together. Well, the whole team except one, and just as Grace is starting to wonder where Lisbon is, she catches a flash of movement behind Jacobs. She forces herself not to look, to keep her attention on Jacobs so she doesn't give anything away. Beside her, Rigsby is repeating the command for Jacobs to drop the gun, trying to keep Jacobs distracted until Lisbon can reach him.

For a moment Grace thinks it will work, that Jacobs is too intent on them to notice the threat behind him. And then something--some small sound or animal instinct--alerts Jacobs to Lisbon's presence. Jacobs spins with a shout, and fires. He has to change his position to do it, though, and that leaves him open. Grace hears Rigsby and Cho fire at the same moment she does. Three shots ring out and Jacobs collapses, taking Jane down with him. Jane crawls out from beneath the body a moment later, but Grace isn't paying attention to him--she's too busy trying to staunch the flow of Lisbon's blood as it pours through her fingers.

The funeral is all hushed tones and dark suits, the sea of black and navy broken only by the occasional flash of a polished badge courtesy of the law enforcement representatives sent from various departments. Even Jane has traded in his customary grey for a somber black suit no one on the team has seen before. Grace wonders where he got it from. It doesn't look new, but it also doesn't look like one of the showy suits he'd worn in his psychic days.

He's standing apart from them. Apart from everyone. He's been apart from them ever since it happened, since Cho led him away from the crime scene and bundled him into the car, the SUV following behind the ambulance so closely they'd barely needed sirens. Even at the hospital, during all those long hours waiting for word, Jane had stayed apart, as if he already knew there could only be one outcome. Grace shivers a little, remembering Jane's reaction when the doctor delivered the news, and is selfishly, guiltily glad that Cho was the one who ended up dealing with Jane that night. She's not sure she could have handled that on top of everything else.

Now, though, Jane is calm and distant, and it breaks her heart to see him standing there alone, twisting a single white rose in his fingers like it's his last link to the world.

"We have to do something," Grace says after the service, the three of them mulling around the newly-dug grave, keeping themselves as separate from the crowd as Jane is from everything. People give them space; they know it's different when it's your team that's suffered a loss.

Cho follows her gaze, frowning fiercely. "He'll talk when he's ready."

That's the problem. Grace isn't sure he'll ever be ready. "It wasn't his fault," she says

Rigsby looks down at the pile of newly-turned soil uncertainly. "If Jane had stayed in the car..."

They've all read the report now. Read Jane's account of what happened that day, of how he was standing beside the SUV, enjoying the breeze and the sun, when Jacobs came around the corner. Nothing he hadn't done a thousand times before with no consequence at all, and Grace feels a flash of anger that Rigsby would bring it up. Would even consider blaming Jane.

"Or if Jane hadn't identified Jacobs as a suspect at all," she counters. "Lisbon would be alive if we'd never gone there." Or if she'd been a little faster, caught Jacobs before he got to Jane, or...

"If Jacobs hadn't pulled a gun, Lisbon would still be alive," Cho says flatly. "Anything else is just guesswork."

Rigsby nods and falls silent, shifting uncomfortably.

Grace looks over at Jane again. He's staring down at the grave, seemingly oblivious to the slowly departing crowds. She's never seen him wear that expression before. She wonders fleetingly if this is how he looked at the funerals of his wife and daughter. "Do you think he'll come back to work?" she asks. He hasn't been back to the CBI since Lisbon died. She's not sure where he's been, and she's not sure she wants to know.

It doesn't matter. None of them are allowed in the field until professional services is finished their investigation anyway.

"I don't know," Rigsby says.

"Yes," Cho says at the same time.

Grace looks at Jane again, willing him to look over at them. Willing him to feel the connection. To know that they're still a team, even without Lisbon.

He's still looking at the grave when they leave.


End file.
